Are you a curious, research-driven historian with an interest to collaborate in a team that is interdisciplinary? Do you wish to write a PhD thesis with impact? Then this is the vacancy for you!
Climate change poses a serious challenge to social cohesion in the coming decades. Extreme weather events, disruptions to food or water supplies, and the pressure to adopt new agricultural practices are already becoming increasingly visible, straining relations between people and decreasing trust in the institutions that guide collective responses. Communities are divided along existing fault lines such as those of neighbourhood, class, gender, and caste, or along new dimensions. Understanding how communities sustain or lose their ability to cooperate under climate induced pressures is an urgent question with implications for future adaptation policies around the world. In the post WWII period, rural societies in Asian countries underwent a dramatic transformation. The introduction of new agricultural technologies increased crop productivity and rural incomes. At the same time, these changes reshaped economic, political, and social power in rural communities. They also exposed farmers to new forms of climate risk. Focusing on local processes during this period allows us to trace when and why cooperation breaks down or endures, and to assess the consequences for sustainable development.
The project asks the following interlinked questions. How did climate change affect social cohesion at intra- and inter-group levels in rural Asian communities? And what can this tell us about how communities respond to climate-based disruption more generally?
These overarching questions open onto several potential research avenues, that can be pursued depending on the candidate’s interests and expertise as well as data availability. This could include research focused within or across countries, as well as across different levels and dimensions of cooperation. We expect such a project to require engagement with quantitative and qualitative sources, with the possibility of fieldwork. Through a comparative and long run study of rural Asia, the project will investigate interactions between climate, institutions and cooperative behaviour to understand the drivers of cooperation through historical analysis, with additional insight from the field of social psychology. By clarifying when cooperation succeeds or fails in historically climate-vulnerable agricultural contexts, the project offers lessons for climate adaptation in other countries around the world.
We look for team players who want to play an active role in an inter- and transdisciplinary research community and training programme, who have:
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a MA/MSc degree in economic history, development or a related discipline; interest in, and ideally some familiarity with social psychology
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interest in the topic of social cohesion and in collaborating in a broad research consortium with academic and non-academic stakeholders
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strong interest in interdisciplinary research, including analytical and theoretical dimensions
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professional competence in English
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experience in working with historical sources is a plus
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experience in applying quantitative and qualitative methods is desirable
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a position (1.0 FTE) for 18 months, with an extension to a total of four years upon a successful assessment in the first year, and with the specific intent that it results in a doctorate within this period;
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a working week of 36 - 40 hours and a gross monthly salary between € 3.059 and €3.881 in the case of full-time employment (salary scale P under the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities (CAO NU));
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8% holiday pay and 8.3% year-end bonus;
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a pension scheme, partially paid parental leave and flexible terms of employment based on the CAO NU.
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This PhD project is part of the SOCION consortium. SOCION addresses a pressing challenge of our time: fragmentation in societies. Social cohesion is key to sustainable societies and citizens’ well-being. However, it is increasingly undermined by erosion and polarization between communities, groups and individuals. In this project, psychologists, historians, demographers, philosophers, and sociologists collaborate with civic organizations to generate and integrate insights into how connections between individuals, groups, and institutions contribute to new pathways to and forms of social cohesion. See https://socion-program.org/research/
For more information about this position, please contact (Vigyan Ratnoo) at [email protected].
Candidates for this vacancy will be recruited by Utrecht University.
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To apply, please send your curriculum vitae, including a letter of motivation via the 'apply now' button. In principle, two rounds of interviews will take place: the first will be on September 7, on-site in Utrecht or online, and for the final two selected candidates, there will be a second online round in the week thereafter.
Invited candidates for the first round will be notified, with further instructions for the interview, latest by August 28.
